Clean Up the World-Less waste ‘not only possible but vital’ |20 September 2008

 
Minister Morgan (photo left) and CEO Hammond take the lead in the tree planting exercise

Environment Minister Joel Morgan said this yesterday while launching the annual Clean Up the World campaign with its theme this year of More Action, Less Waste.

He was speaking during tree-planting in the grounds of the Cable & Wireless headquarters – one of the first activities to mark the week-long United Nations campaign.
 
He said last year we collected more than 50,000 tons of waste on Mahe alone and a further increase is expected this year. This makes us comparable to industrialised nations, which, however, have the space for landfill sites that Seychelles does not.
 
Also addressing the audience of mostly C&W staff, chief executive Charles Hammond said the company is actively changing the way it works so as to cut wastage of natural resources.
 
He said the introduction of eTopUp over a year ago has reduced the number of prepaid vouchers littering the environment, and other services such as e-bill are focused on saving paper.

The company has also introduced its own Greener Cable & Wireless initiative, which piggy-backs on the national My Tree, Our Seychelles campaign, he added.

The ministerial delegation, which included principal secretary Didier Dogley, then joined staff from the Department of Environment and school children from Anse Etoile at North East Point in a clean-up exercise around the old people’s home.

There, Mr Morgan said the campaign’s key message is to encourage people to keep Seychelles clean and unspoilt for all to enjoy.

He said we cannot afford to carry on tolerating people littering and must assert ourselves against them as they show a lack of respect for those who make it their duty to keep Seychelles clean.